Comment: Lately you sound like a political commentator and not a Kabbalist.

Answer: In our shared cultural development we have reached the end of the previous stage of human development, a stage in which humanity evolved according to natural law, through its continually growing egoism, like a little child or adolescent.

But just as the period of childhood ends, so also this period is ending, and today nature is forcing us to grow up and relate to life differently. For this, it is up to us to work against our egoistic desires and rise above them with faith above reason.

To realize this transition from childhood to adulthood, the wisdom of Kabbalah has been revealed and tells us where we are, what happened throughout history, and what will happen in the future. Beginning from this moment, we have before us two ways of development: the way of suffering or the way of Torah, the good way. The wisdom of Kabbalah teaches us how to walk in the good way, which means learning to resemble nature and unite like all of nature is united.

The integral feeling will unveil before us the true world in which we exist. But now it is hidden by our narrow egoistic feeling. By discovering the true world we will be “creators” of another eternal and perfect world.

Since this transition is imperative for everyone and must happen in our time, as is written in the wisdom of Kabbalah and according to everything that is happening in the world, it seems that we must teach the wisdom of Kabbalah with news events, and explain what the events are caused by and toward what they are leading us.

It is possible to see my commentaries from previous years and be convinced about how right they are. Even Baal HaSulam wrote about politics in the writings of “The Last Generation” and in the newspaper, The Nation.[191318]

“Human prosociality presents an evolutionary puzzle, and reciprocity has emerged as a dominant explanation: cooperating today can bring benefits tomorrow. Reciprocity theories clearly predict that people should only cooperate when the benefits outweigh the costs, and thus that the decision to cooperate should always depend on a cost–benefit analysis. Reciprocity theories clearly predict that people should only cooperate when the benefits outweigh the costs, and thus that the decision to cooperate should always depend on a cost–benefit analysis. Yet human cooperation can be very uncalculating: good friends grant favors without asking questions, romantic love ‘blinds’ us to the costs of devotion, and ethical principles make universal moral prescriptions. Here, we provide the first evidence, to our knowledge, that reputation effects drive uncalculating cooperation. We demonstrate, using economic game experiments, that people engage in uncalculating cooperation to signal that they can be relied upon to cooperate in the future.

“Humans frequently cooperate without carefully weighing the costs and benefits. As a result, people may wind up cooperating when it is not worthwhile to do so. Why risk making costly mistakes? Here, we present experimental evidence that reputation concerns provide an answer: people cooperate in an uncalculating way to signal their trustworthiness to observers.

“People who help others non egoistically and for no self benefit are perceived as more reliable and therefore help others,” which means that they want to seem more reliable and can be counted on and accepted to work and so subconsciously they do things that are considered desirable by others. …

“…we find that participants are more likely to engage in uncalculating cooperation when their decision-making process is observable to others. Furthermore, we confirm that people who engage in uncalculating cooperation are perceived as, and actually are, more trustworthy than people who cooperate in a calculating way. Taken together, these data provide the first empirical evidence, to our knowledge, that uncalculating cooperation is used to signal trustworthiness, and is not merely an efficient decision-making strategy that reduces cognitive costs.”

Answer: Of course this is how such people want to be accepted. So they promote themselves to acquire some “profit”: gain social status, are promoted at work, etc.

Question:Would they behave differently if there weren’t this self-benefit?

Answer: Of course! Egoism is our nature, it requires calories, energy, an investment. Where does this energy come from? We have to see what we can get it from in the future; how we can fill ourselves. It is just lifke a gas tank in a car which you fill at a gas station.

People are ready to give a lot for the future reward that illuminates for them: for being spoken of favorably, for being promoted at work, so that their children will be proud of them, neighbors will respect them, etc. It is worth a lot!

Otherwise why do we buy a certain apartment or a certain car and spend a lot of money on it, when we could live in perfect peace and quite well without them.

Our actions cannot be free of greediness because our nature doesn’t allow us to do so! We have to spend calories on everything, joules (energy measuring units), no matter how we measure it. Therefore we have to receive this energy, which means that there has to be something that provides us with this energy for which we work, and if we don’t receive it, we cannot work because we are all mechanisms! We can only operate only if we have available energy or if it illuminates for us in the future.

Comment: But the researchers at Yale and Harvard don’t even mention egoism.

Answer: Of course not because they don’t understand it. They believe it is natural for a person who gives to do so and that there is no egoism in him and even quite the opposite.

Comment: But they did conclude that such actions are rewarding.

Answer:This is not considered egoism. Egoism is the clear fulfillment of our desire in order to harm others. If I bargain with someone in order to buy something for a cheaper price and he wants to sell it for a higher price, it is normal. It is human nature, but it may be the opposite case.

The painter Modigliani, for example, painted with “blood” because he was so hungry he couldn’t hold a paintbrush and fell exhausted at his easel. This is considered a noble soul, self-sacrifice, not selfishness. But in fact, this is overt blatant egoism.

A person lacks the clear accurate understanding of his nature; he loves to distort everything. Humanity is still immersed in its games, in confusion.

We must understand that nature operates according to a very simple principle: If there is energy, I turn around; if there is no energy I stand still and that’s all. Therefore, if we do something, it means that there is a hidden benefit in it, and if we wish to work without it, we have to know how to connect to an upper source of energy by studying the wisdom of Kabbalah and become a perpetual motion machine.

Then we will receive energy from an external source as if we are connected to an invisible pipe of energy for the sake of others. If we receive it, we will be able to work, but not in any other way.[191202]From KabTV’s “News with Michael Laitman” 7/24/16

Torah, “Deuteronomy,” 7:16: And you shall consume all the peoples which the Lord your God gives you; you shall not spare them, nor shall you worship their gods, for that will be a snare for you.

Any theories, methods, and goals that don’t pursue an accurate and acute goal—adhesion with the Creator in the equivalence of form with Him—should be abolished on the vine.

It is necessary to move away from those teachings that are very close to Kabbalah so they won’t captivate and confuse a person. After all, he doesn’t know the whole method yet, he isn’t at the end of correction, so that, from the pedestal he has reached, he could look at everything and evaluate. Therefore he must strictly follow only genuine Kabbalistic sources, without moving to the left or to the right!

By the way, there is a lot of unnecessary literature in Kabbalah that is written by people who haven’t attained or have just begun to attain the upper world. Therefore, it is necessary to study Kabbalah only through authentic sources.

Question: Is this the “trap”?

Answer: Yes, and a very big one! The trap, like a tidbit, lures you, but the trap slams shut. That’s it. It is difficult to get out of there. And you don’t know when it will slam shut. Once in the trap, you start to think that you are on the right path.

Unfortunately I have many students who were with us on the path, but due to some pretext left it and went into other currents, and it is hard to get them out.

It is possible that they think the same about us that we are on the side and they are in the main current. There is nothing that can be done, the future will tell.

Answer: It means serving any egoistic purposes, which includes everything that exists in our world.

Question: What does trap mean in a person’s internal work? Let’s say he is moving to the land of Israel and tomorrow, figuratively speaking, has to enter it, but suddenly falls in serving other gods…

Answer: Usually it happens before we enter the land of Israel. However even after we enter it, the huge war to destroy all idols continues since we begin to work with the same egoism that we left in Egypt and convert it into altruism.

The thing is that the egoistic desire is at the bottom. We exit it, 40 years we are above it, mastering all above-egoistic qualities, and then we begin to gradually raise egoistic qualities converting them to altruistic ones. And this is the entry to the land of Israel. In fact, the land of Israel is the same as Egypt in the correct, converted state.[191074]From KabTV’s “Secrets of the Eternal Book” 4/13/16

New Life #323 – What Is The Secret Of Success In Life?
Dr. Michael Laitman in conversation with Oren Levi and Nitzah Mazoz

Technological development has opened possibilities for success for just about every person. How does this influence the connections between us and what is the purpose of this development?

Summary

In the past, technology was linked to materials like steel and wood, heavy production.

Today everything is virtual, easy, fast, and dynamic. Creativity, brilliance, computers, and robots are what are important.
– Manpower is less necessary for humanity. Computers and advanced technologies are replacing and hastening everything.
– Start-ups, brilliant youth, biotechnology, three-dimensional printers. We print what we want.
– Within a short time we will succeed in extending human life.
– Artistic ability like composing, painting, dancing—in the future we will be able to “download” this kind of software into a person, and then the question will be raised, if everything can be attained through the push of a button, what is success in life?
– Only one area will remain in which we can be successful thanks to ourselves—building connections with others.

Computers and machines will be able to do everything for us, and the task of building a new society will remain for us.
– Today people and organizations connect through networking in order to be successful, but this is not the connection we are talking about. We are talking about building an integral connection between a person and everything that is outside of him—all of us as one family.
– When we want to connect as a single body, we discover the power of giving and love that fills all of nature. The perception of reality will be changed. We will see the eternal connection between all the parts, beyond life and death. And this will be considered true success in life, and not all of today’s games.
– This is talking about the transformation of the desire that motivates us from the desire to receive for oneself alone to a desire to bestow to others.

The material from which we are built is a desire for pleasure. We correct it with the characteristic of bestowal above it.
– I am an individualist; I bend everyone for my benefit. There is a higher power in nature that can upgrade me.
– In this process of upgrading relationships with others, there is a place for positive competition. This is the success of tomorrow.
– At birth, nobody is equal to others. But work on upgrading nature equalizes all of us.
– When we mutually complement each other, the wonderful uniqueness of each and every one becomes clarified.

Day by day science is discovering how much all the details and all laws are connected into a single system.
– To date we measured success egoistically; tomorrow we will measure success with how beneficial I am to everyone.
– If we don’t work on upgrading our relationships with others, we will not be able to use technological advancement for the better.[135159]From KabTV’s “New Life #323 – What Is The Secret Of Success In Life,?” 3/20/14